CX500T

I spend less than 3 nights a month in my own bed with a memory foam mattress in my pad. My "roommates" are a JB Captain I've known for years, an ER FO I have known for years and a former MEC chair. Maybe once a month there's more than one of us.

I actually ran into the ER FO for the first time in 6 months last trip, haven't seen RS in 6 months. But when NYC shuts down, there's no hotels or cars for any price and its a 3 hour wait for an uber, the pad I walk to off the AirTrain is awesome.
I also can park at my pad.

But the biggest thing is a non roach motel in NYC is over $300 a night IF you can get one. The worst place I will stay is five towns, and thats like $170 out the door IF they have room on short notice. I pay $325 for the pad. I leave spare uniforms, a trip worth of clothes and more spares in my closet.

We have a nice place. BBQ grill, pool in warm weather.

If I get Short Call I just go hang out there if I didn't drive.

But if it's 2 days off with a late release and early report, generally not worth going home to sleep 1 night in my bed.

Doggo is already boarded (wife in Scotland) so no point on going home.

CBreezy

Not everyone can roll thunder and not everyone can GS. Just because it's available for some doesn't mean others can bid against their family needs HOPING to get a GS for the PB days.

DWC CAP10 USAF

You are out to lunch.

I'm not talking IROP like a few cancellations due to SWAP or crew time out...I'm talking JFK/LGA/EWR/BOS full up closed....10's of thousand of people not getting out that night....not a single hotel room anywhere on Long Island....happen often? No, but I've had it happen twice so far in my relatively short time at Big D.

Or the time I thought I was senior enough to hold all commutable trips so I got rid of my crash pad...then the rotation construction completely changed and we got an extremely high number of one and two day rotations for a few months.....I ended up with 10 nights in a hotel, over $2000 in that one month...that's 7 months of crash pad rent, in a pad that I have my own bed...not hot bunking, no one sleeps there when I'm not there...I could sleep in that bed the entire 30 nights of the bid period if I wanted to....full kitchen too.

Jumping on a D1 seat to go somewhere to where I can get a hotel? Or just sleep in D1? Wow.

Here is what you seem to be missing: commuting is different for everyone.

For me, there is a certain amount of stress and having a Crashpad mitigates that stress. I *KNOW* I always have a bed to sleep in like a grown man...not a recliner, not a cot in the sleep room like a hobo (yes it 100% happens), so I no longer worry about the "what if I don't make the last flight out on go home day"...no scurrying last second to try to find a hotel. That keeps me relaxed when the go home day starts falling to ****e!

If ARCOS calls with a GS, I don't have to jump through my arse to see if I can find a hotel room in the 10 minute acknowledge window before I can accept (yes I know I can accept and then turn it down when I get the award notification).

Why would I blow upwards of $1K every month for hotels when I could only blow $300 not the pad. $700 difference x 12 months isn't chump change.

Like I said...you do you.

CBreezy

Yes..yes you are.

crewdawg

Ya I'd say you're out to lunch by crapping on the choices of others wrt commutes/working. My last FO thought I was absolutely crazy for paying for parking in the long term garage at DTW. However, the small cost is well worth it fo me, especially after my last lovely ride from the employee lot. But I certainly understand why most don't do it.

Also, wrt working on particular days. Think of the collective stress the airline crews put on themselves to get a particularday off. If you're like my family, who almost never celebrates holidays on the actual day, working on a holiday isn't a big deal at all. I understand why some must have that particular day off am I'm just glad I grew up in an extremely flexible family. In the end, there is nothing special about any particular day, what really matters to us is that we have everyone there for the entire day and not just a small window before people rush off to the next celebration. To others, the date is extremely important, and there is nothing wrong with that either.

Trip7

This is getting into semantics but a 1st year 73N/320 NYC Captain will make $310k assuming 75 avg credit and 10% PS. This is basically the minimum on paper

Now back to the Real world. There is no HOPING for a GS in NYC. They are readily available.

75 credit is unrealistic on RSV in NYC as scheduling will attempt to get maximum efficiency out of each pilot. There will be plenty of SCs and if not used the pilot gets credit on top of guarantee.

In light of all this GSing and getting PB days is an efficient strategy to get better QOL or Family time as you call it.

CBreezy

This isn't about getting "better QOL." This is about rolling the dice on a schedule I could hold thereby giving us stability vs hoping, yes hoping, the perfect circumstance presents itself on a less desirable schedule so that I can pick up a GS that drops the right amount of days to take care of childcare conflicts. . Some of us don't get the luxury of playing that game so saying everyone can (and should) do it is tone deaf to many of our realities.

Hotel Kilo

Well said. This needs to be stickied somewhere.

Hotel Kilo

this is reality for the majority of the pilot group. Not Trip's rainbow unicorn GS world.

Again, well said

JamesBond

So having a crashpad is uncivilized? The one I had in NY was pretty nice. Kitchen, fridge with beverages, living room with cable. In the 10 years I was there I only had to share a room twice. Hot water too. And the break even was 2 nights/month on hotels. But you do you.